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PS3 Piracy Threats Cause Phone-Home DRM
Stoobalou writes "The last time game developer Capcom tried to impose Internet-based copy protection on one of its games, it was forced to backtrack over a storm of complaints. In that instance Final Fight: Double Impact was hobbled with a piracy-busting scheme which phoned home every time the game was booted, but Capcom forgot to mention that little nugget of information to potential purchasers — an omission which eventually led to the DRM scheme being hastily withdrawn. The company has decided not to repeat the mistake with its latest release, Bionic Commando Rearmed 2, by making it clear that the game won't work unless it gets a sign-off from the company's servers."
No, privacy threats plus Sony's willingness to impose phone-home DRM plus consumers' and legislators' willingness to accept DRM were all contributors.
The piracy "threats" (which aren't even a threat to begin with) don't cause anything.
Stupid publishers cause DRM and lose customers. End of story.
Pirates will pirate.
Buyers will buy.
But DRM makes buyers look into piracy.
The pirates will have a work around for this about a week after it comes out. It's the non-pirates that will have problems with it.
The odd thing about this is that even with the release of the console's important keys, it's still not practical to pirate PSN games. You can pirate PS3 games that come on a disc until you're blue in the face, but the tools don't exist to do so with newer PSN games - as a result only a small number of them can be pirated at the moment.
Either Capcom knows something we don't know or they're preparing for the inevitable, because right now you'd be hard pressed to pirate BCR2 even without phone-home DRM.
If this scheme seems to work other games will follow - as will other publishers.
So by avoiding buying the games you are sending a clear signal to the publisher that this is method that isn't acceptable.
And what happens if there is a DoS attack on the servers?
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
But DRM makes buyers look into piracy.
This. Also, instead of investing so much money into DRM research, they could just cut game prices and see their sales go up. $80/60euro per game? Please.
Even corporations.
Let's boycott Capcom's games, Capcom's gadgets, and Capcom's websites.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
If pirates are getting better service than paying customers, what do you expect?
"And what happens if there is a DoS attack on the servers?"
They already have your money at that time, they likely wouldn't care.
It just went through the hassle of dealing with Steam support because I was unable to access my account to play Civ V.
Response time was a little over 24 hours and they call this customer service.
This was the last time I purchased a game with DRM because only pirated DRM games are customer friendly!
Everyone who buys Wild Hunt will receive 16 specially prepared DLCs absolutely for free, regardless of platform.
But with they can stick that game where the sun doesn't shine, for me. I hope it sells really bad.
When a pirate throws a game at their console they get: a working game, with no call-home, most likely no requirement for stable internet connection, and a hassle-free gameplay experience. A legitimate user gets: a mostly working game, with call-home, requirement for a stable internet connection, and definitely not hassle-free gameplay experience should there be issues with the connection.
Basically, this won't affect pirates at all. There is simply nothing stopping from someone releasing a crack for this game and it'll work just as peachy as ever. It's only legitimate customers being hurt here.
When are game companies going to learn?
I have a collection of old game systems and enjoy playing them regularly. I just can't get my head around these current schemes. I am I right that it will be impossible to collect something like the PS3 and this Capcom game and play it 15 years from now, unless Capcom still has exists, the PS3 can still connect to the net, and Capcom still has their DRM servers running? It's incredible.
We're so sorry that we created such an awful DRM system without telling you what we were doing ... to fix that problem and regain the trust of our customers we will now tell you exactly how badly our DRM system will screw over legitimate users. But at least we know that no one can find any way to crack the airtight PS3 security lockdown.
And next time we come out with a game we'll make sure to have a completely non-invasive DRM scheme that simply involves implanting a CAPCOM chip in your frontal lobe so that you can be our very own little Bionic DRM Commander.
I think this method is more to prevent game sharing then piracy.
Most PSN items can be installed on up to 5 consoles, so that account doesn't have to be logged in. DLC costs are a lot more palatable when you split them 5 ways but still get the same product. With this new account requirement the practice will go away.
Well, that will be a game that sells well.
Most homes where this will be bought have always on Internet anyway. How many people here specifically turn on their router when they want to go online? Besides which, this is a game designed to be played online with others. TFS only linked to a little diatribe that didn't actually link back to the source. Actual entry for this story on PSN is here.
Besides, the game is not unique in this. Dragon Age II will make periodic calls home to check it's legit. Is that game going to do badly, too? Linking a game to a legitimate account online is one of the least inconvenient to the user methods of reducing piracy.
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
No idea why publishers are so obsessed with DRM.
So either it really does increase sales, or they are crazy.
No one spends millions on some tech (DRM in this case) when there is no return.
I'm not supporting this BS BTW, just wondering why.
Mostly because everyone thinks they got the silver bullet.
How can you blame these poor little companies for implementing DRM? If one person copies a game, all must suffer! If you were a legitimate buyer, you'd know that...
Oh, and, this is all Geohot's fault, not the people implementing the DRM or removing the features to feed their paranoia! That's right. All buyers must receive defective products because some people copy games. This makes sense to those of us who don't steal profit that doesn't yet exist.
Filthy, filthy copyrapists!
For some reason, control is more important than profit to some companies.
There is a war going on for your mind.
Which is precisely what will happen. Hell, I won't be surprised if it doesn't set a new standard for being the most pirated PS3 game ever just out of spite.
Would you buy a game called Bionic Commando Rear Med? It sounds like a Hemorrhoid Medicine or Mechanized Prostate exam. I bet this is referes to the advanced rectal cancer screening practiced by Goatse. Perhaps it a deranged euphemism for some sexual assualt. perhaps the game "turd burgular 2" was taken.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
I buy. I have 2 PS3's in my home one for the kids and one for me. I game on the average 5 to 10 hours a week.
It was fun at the beginning with OtherOS. In regards to peoples complaint about pirates and cheating, I find it's more an issue of poor development. I do not see any noticeable change. Sometimes I'm in a game of BC2 that I can't seem to hit anything even when I empty 100 rounds in the back of some unsuspecting chap. Other times it feels that every confrontation I'm in I win. This applies to almost all MP games, CoDMW, MAG and so on... It's nothing new and it has not changed much since the jailbreak.
I bought the systems for entertainment and in most cases to clear my mind form the day to day issues. Since Sony removed the Other OS I find the PS3 more of a means of frustration than a means of entertainment. Most of the time I have under an hour to play. These constant updates take over 15 minutes to complete and won't work in the background. Once installed and rebooted you go through a 2 to 5 minute wait just to get in to load the game and view all the ads. Once you're finally in you get a no games available message. It used to happen occasionally. Since the last update it seams to happen 4 out of 5 times. I initially thought it was my cable provider until I started researching on the net.
My PS3's are no longer entertaining for MP purposes. I'm not alone, most of my friends got fed up before me. I'm not interested in SP games with the same problems. It's time to jailbreak and pirate, in this way I will still get some entertainment from my console. All this to say I will never purchase anymore products from Sony let alone any draconian DRM laden sh1t unless the attitude changes.
DRM? No thanks, I'll just get it somewhere else...
Don't be fooled. Apparently only 78% of PS3 owners and 73% of XBox 360 owners have their respective consoles hooked up to Internet. Wii trails a long way behind that with 54%.
No you're not and that's the problem. By not buying the game you're sending a clear signal that you found a way to pirate it and so they need to add even more draconian anti-piracy measures to their next release.
Hi Ubisoft!
While I agree with the sentiment of your post, it's preaching to the converted here I think. The problem is all the people out there who buy games without really giving a crap about the important issues. Fallout 3 and New Vegas for example. Horribly buggy on the PC upon release, still crashing to desktop regularly despite a swathe of patches and no-one is really that up in arms about it (probably because it's still a good game despite the bugs). Similar case, and something on British news today - Black Ops. Released with what seems like a hastily cobbled together multiplayer framework that left a significant proportion of the player base unable to use the multiplayer aspect of the game at all, and it's still like that today. The publisher gives assurances about working with gamers to fix it, but what they'd really like is for everyone to just shut up and swallow the pill. As long as there are people out there willing to for out £40-50 on a game that's broken at release, or has intrusive DRM stuffed everywhere, this kind of behaviour and this approach to selling games will continue.
This is why is adamantly defend Valve and their "it'll be late but by God it'll work" approach to releasing games, arguments over Steam as DRM aside.
You can advertise in this sig from as little as £99.99 a month!
Also the kids in my family don't have their consoles connected online, so that means we'd all have games that refuse to play because they cannot "phone home" to the Game manufacturer's website.
Ditto with My kids.
They don't have internet-connected consoles, so how are they supposed to play Capcom games? I guess Capcom lost several million customers with this decision.
FOX NEWS.com should be BANNED from television and internet. Have the Congress take it over and give us Truespeak.
Pirates will Pirate .....
Buyers will give up and do something else
The last DRM'ed game I bought took so long and so much hassle to get updated, running etc that it was easier and less hassle to download a hacked version and play that rather than the legit one I owned ...!
DVDs are the same, the legit ones have so much unskippable rubbish on them that I consider getting a pirated version so I can watch the movie I have payed for ...
Puteulanus fenestra mortis
Nintendo consoles have always trended towards younger audiences, and probably ~50% of Wii owners are kids or teens who don't have permission to get online.
I think Wii is actually the best to have online, since it has all those classic Nintendo, Super Nintendo, and N64 games. Also Sega Master System and Genesis and Commodore 64 games. It's a sweet deal. (IMHO)
Information wants to be expensive AND wants to be free. So you have Value vs. Cheap distribution fighting each other.
Yes?
A flaw in the way MS Office hands a Word document could result in arbitrary code execution with a maliciously crafted Word document.
PDFs seem to get a lot of these bugs.
I dont go online with my PS3 its in the family room, haven't hacked it either but i'm not going to be forced to put it online, I've taken it into my office and run updates a few times but no way i'm going to do that everytime the kids or i want to play a game. Hopefully there will be noticeable warning on the box for titles that do that.
it will be in 3 point font in a font color that is only 2 shades lighter than the background
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
This is an interesting point. Technically (perhaps not legally but I don't know if this has been challenged in court yet), if you have already purchased the game does it matter if you download a hacked version because it's easier to play?
I regularly do this with PC games that require the CD be in to play, I will purchase the game and then download the No-CD crack for it.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law - Aleister Crowley
You seem to think this is something that they experimentally test in a lab and determine to be true or false. Reality is that game launches are so unique depending on so many factors both internal to the game and external in the market that nobody really can measure it. The same game has never launched at the same time in the same way both with and without DRM - and if you did that'd be pointless because it would essentially be like launching without DRM.
Publishers do things they think contribute positively into this mix. More marketing is better than less marketing, less bugs is better than more bugs but many things are unknown like if they'd gone with game play style X instead of Y. Or whether they should apply DRM and if so what kind. That is in fact just guesswork, sometimes educated guesswork and sometimes just pure belief.
It's a little bit like your health, very complicated thing. Everybody knows some things are healthy and some things are not, but some things are more belief than anything else. For example what the best way to lose weight is, I've heard roughly as many theories as the number of people I've talked to. Same with exercise and how you should exercise. People are more acting out of belief than fact, and game publishers are just like that.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
It would be nice if people didn't buy it and capcom got that message; however that isn't going to happen. If the game sells well, capcom will hail it as a victory and this method will spread to other games quickly. If the game doesn't sell well, capcom will likely attribute the lack of sales to things other than the DRM.
PS2 was the last actual games console, IMO. Since then, nobody has made an actual games console. The instant 'consoles' started practically requiring internet connections and firmware updates, they stopped being game consoles, and became something else. The console is dead. Long live the console!
...but rather a result of Sony's strange DRM implementation.
The way it's designed, the full version of a game can be downloaded in up to 5 different consoles. People noticed this, and started abusing this system by creating "sharing groups" of five people using a single account for purchases, therefore getting their games for 1/5 the cost.
Publishers obviously didn't like this, which lead to this "Phone Home" stupidity.
My sig became obsolete, and I lack the imagination to create a new one.
This game is only purchasable on consoles that are currently online. If your consoles have never been online, then... no problem!
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
Amen bro. This is especially true for Asian companies in general, and Japanese companies in particular.
I work for LG (electronics repair) and they have a very strict way of doing stuff. If you screw up, even a single digit in a 20-digit serial number, they cancel your order, don't pay, and bill you for the parts you used for them. Sony has a similar policy. It's fine by me, I just overbill them as much as I can. In the end I get more money from them than if they tried to do things right (and let you, you know, fix errors and resubmit your order?).
I think it's because of the Asian mindset (or stereotype?) of hard-working people who don't complain, and the social scale system. Anyone more important than you must exercise his power over you.
Then they try the same in the West and it usually doesn't go very well.
The sooner these corporate idiots get this the better. I don't mind shelling out for a game, but if it has invasive DRM? You can forget it. I think the ONLY DRM I don't mind is Steam, because instead of being annoying as hell, it's convenient.
What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
Except the games are 100% bound to the console. Console dies, and say bye bye to those games.
Do you realize, that Sony CEO is an american?
They are all convinced they are super smart industry leaders. As such, it is impossible that people might not think their game is not worth $50-$60 and not play it. So clearly if they haven't sold a copy for every man, woman, and child with access to a TV and electricity, the difference is clearly piracy.
No, that 3 point font in a font color 2 shades lighter than the background will refer you to the "full EULA available in the EULA display department."
The EULA display department is, of course, in the third subbasement of Capcom's headquarters. Past where the stairs and light have gone, so you'll have to bring a ladder and torch. Keep going and you'll find a disused lavatory with a sign saying "beware the leopard", in which there's a locked filing cabinet with the key broken off inside the lock...
I agree with that, but the Wii Remote on a jailbroken Wii is perfect for playing emulated classic Nintendo games. For most of the other consoles, it's not even a good fit unless you buy their wacky controller with a cord that plugs into the remote.
I can't imagine buying the games online. On the other hand, Super Mario Bros. 3 is cheaper on the Wii online store than it is to buy a used NES cartridge.
You must not be a Netflix subscriber, then.
That is just ludicrous!
profits fall, blame it on piracy. Plus you can dangle 'lost sales' figures in front of investors and say you'll get all that money once you implement phone home.
One of the keys to selling that people always forget, it doesn't have to be true as long as the person buys & you've got enough plausible deniability to beat back the lawsuit.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 as well as Final Fight: Double Impact are downloadable games bought on the Playstation Network so there is no box. I think for most people who buy the game it will be a non-issue but I still think that there is no reason why game should require internet access for single player (or local multiplayer) modes.
"Our opponent is an alien starship packed with atomic bombs. We have a protractor."
Yes, the CEO since 2005 is American, but I seriously doubt Sony's corporate culture is. You don't really think he makes every single decision for each division, do you?
There is a war going on for your mind.
Pirates will pirate.
Buyers will buy.
But DRM makes buyers look into piracy.
Worse, it makes buyers consider avoiding your pain in the arse game pirated or otherwise. It's suppose to be fun, not a bunch of hoops to jump through. Idiot executives have forgotten that.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
What happens in a year or two when Bionic Commando 3 comes out and they shut down the Bionic Commando 2 phone-home servers?
What if you are non-technical and didn't bother to, are afraid to, or can't hook your console up to the internet?
Don't buy this game.
Don't kid yourself. It's the size of the regexp AND how you use it that counts.
The publisher gives assurances about working with gamers to fix it, but what they'd really like is for everyone to just shut up and swallow the pill. As long as there are people out there willing to for out £40-50 on a game that's broken at release, or has intrusive DRM stuffed everywhere, this kind of behaviour and this approach to selling games will continue.
Yep. Once they have your money they can tell you to get stuffed. Most people won't fight, so even giving refunds to a vocal minority doesn't bother them at all.
And I suspect said ddos will be "for teh lulz" or somesuch :p
The Gamecube controller works perfectly well for SuperNES and Nintendo 64 emulation. It's wireless and is reasonably easy on the AA batteries it consumes.
"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
And if they can't view it, all I have to say is, bloody apathetic game owners, I've no sympathy.
"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
these aren't PSN games though. These are games that come on a Disc. Most newer XBL Games phone home once every set period of time (which is a pain if you want to move your 360 and play castle crashers) but that;s DRM that is EXPECTED, not "hey lets DRM your disc"
For those, I prefer using my MythTV / Emulation computer that's hooked to my TV. Wireless controller with the PS2 dual shock design, and works perfectly for SNES and PlayStation. The buttons are nearly in the right place for Sega Genesis. I also hate the N64 controller, so I love it for that too.
I have all that set up, but I play my emulated Nintendo games on the Wii. It's just too much of an authentic experience to pass up.
So either it really does increase sales, or they are crazy.
No one spends millions on some tech (DRM in this case) when there is no return.
They see a game on bittorrent, they assume that it has been downloaded eleventy million times and nobody there is paying for it. They then assume that had that game not appeared there, they'd have more money in their pockets. Essentially, yes, they are crazy.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Nintendo is forcing me into piracy.
I've got a Wii. I've chosen not to homebrew it for multiple reasons. Nintendo, however, had other plans. My guess is that they don't do a check on the firmware upgrades when they get downloaded. (They might do a CRC, but they sure don't MD5) For whatever reason, I often get a "The System Files are Corrupted. Refer to Troubleshooting Guide" when I boot it up. It can reboot sometimes, but I'd say it works about 25% of the time.
I called Nintendo and they suggest that I format the Wii to fix the problem and back up my games first.
The problem is that Mario Kart and Smash Brothers can't be copied unless I hack my Wii first. I'll be damned if I am going to do all those races and fights again to unlock a bunch of things on the game. I'm not 15 anymore -- I'm in my mid-30s and I have other things to do with my time than placate Nintendo's insane ideas of copy protection.
So that was it, Nintendo. While I'm at it, I might as well plug in my nearby storage drive and back up the disks so the kids don't scratch them.
---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
Just get some low self discharge NIMH batteries and stop paying for bottled electricity. It is just as wasteful as buying bottled water.
And what happens if there is a DoS attack on the servers?
Forget about that, what happens if I want to play while not connected or during an internet outage?
~Syberz
Well, let's make it clear that the game won't be bought unless it has no DRM of any kind at all.
Dragon Age II isn't, but there ones in the original story are both downloadable only, I am fairly sure.
Examples? I have around 20 PSN games and not one requires me to sign in or be online at all.
I have had almost 0 bugs in fallout. I wasn't even aware there was issues. Which is surprising considering it's Bethesda.
Anyways, people on the computer have been neaten down for years with the trend of releasing buggy software.I mean, now its even expected. Something that would have been really embarrassing 20 years ago.
The good news is that pretty soon console will be in the same boat~
And yes, Valve is awesome. I also love steam. It's a great step towards no DRM.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Except there is a lot of data about releasing in general, None of which shows the no DRM hurts. Some of which shows not having DRM eve helps..
But people get hung up o what they 'feel' is wrong and let that drive there business decsions.
So they would rather spend money trying to present unethical behavior then actually sitting down to make a smart business decision.
I wish business decisions where cold, dry decisions. They are not.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Same here, bought the console recently - to go online I had to update to 3.50. I do that, and a few days later there is a 3.55 which adds 0 new features ... just canceled that upgrade. I'm seriously thinking of hacking it now, even though I have plenty of legally bought games to last me for several months - I also dislike their idea of no PSN w/o updates at all, why do they need to have any checks in place even for downloading demos?
What's that comment about them coming for the communists, but I wasn't a communist, then they came for my XBox but I had a PS3 and then they came for me and there was no one left to fight for me?
As I recall it goes something like this:
"First they came for the communists, but I wasn't a communist, then they came for my XBox but I had a PS3, and then they came for me and there was no one left to fight for me."
Bow-ties are cool.
Reason is that it is an acceptable compromise. I want games with no DRM, unsurprisingly. I think it is a waste of money and it does not enhance my experience as a paying customer. However I understand that publishers are paranoid. Ok well I'll meet them half way. I am not going to be a zealot and demand NO DRM EVAR!!!!11 so long as they meet me half way and make the DRM something that doesn't cause me trouble.
Steam's DRM is pretty good like that. The only downside to it really is that you have to be logged in to Steam. However that's not a big downside since Steam provides services to the game. Also it allows you to install it as often as you like, on an many platforms as you like and so on.
As such it is a pretty reasonable package. Valve did a good job of integrating the DRM such that it doesn't really matter to users, that you don't really notice it. It is just a natural part of Steam and it doesn't intrude.
I'm ok with that, and I'm glad that they are giving publishers something that keeps them happy without screwing over the users.
Consoles should not have any sort of 'phone home' DRM.
I'll give a relevant anecdote. A snowstorm knocked out our Internet (to 98% packet loss) for a few days. Thus my housemate and I could only play SC2 vs computer (despite being on same lan), couldn't play any steam games since offline mode wasn't working right (something about no local login credentials) until a brief spurt of connectivity allowed it to authenticate.
But all my PS3 and PSP games worked fine. It's one of the rare areas where PC gaming elitists don't have a leg to stand on. If this sort of DRM is allowed then there is even less of a reason to get console games.
I dont go online with my PS3 its in the family room, haven't hacked it either but i'm not going to be forced to put it online
The "family room" generally implies that you have a family -
WiFI home networking and a big screen TV.
The odds are becoming quite good, after all, that your HDTV and home theater receiver/audio system and the radio by your bedside will Internet and WiFi enabled.
You may not want to take the PS3 online, but I am betting someone else does. According to the Wikipedia, there are 69 million PSN accounts, 17 million PlayStation Home social networking accounts - not to mention firmware uogrades for Blu-Ray disk play, services like Netflix, PlayStation Plus, and so on.
These constant updates take over 15 minutes to complete and won't work in the background.
PlayStation Plus subscribers get automatic downloads of demos, patches, firmware, etc.
PlayStation Plus
Downloads can be scheduled as you like.
Firmware upgrades are not installed automatically. For more details:Support: System Software Updates [Automatic Downloads]
I have a PS3, (CECHExx) I have never had any problems with the software. Once the OS option was removed there were more annoying updates, but I still have no problems with the system. For the annoying constant updates I blame the people who keep hacking there PS3's and then posting it all over the net. Don't blame Sony for defending it's investments. They put allot of money and hard work into making the PS3 and it's games. If you tell every one how to steal games then you can't be surprised when security measures are taken against you. On a similar note I feel the hackers should be rewarded with payments for there work, as long as they do it respecting the company who's software / hardware they are having fun with (not go posting it all over the net).
by Slashdotters who want to believe that key release didn't cause any real damage.
http://www.binplay.com/2011/01/mw2-ruined-by-ps3-jailbreak.html
Don't you mean usually doesn't work?